Tent with inflatable structure

ABSTRACT

Tent with inflatable structure including an outer cover ( 1 ) and a floor portion ( 2 ), where the inflatable structure includes at least one beam made of standard fire hose ( 3 ) or other industrial seamless hose ( 3 ) having outer textile braiding. The hose ( 3 ) is at each of its ends closed by a plug ( 4 ), of which at least one includes air inlet/outlet element ( 5 ), and at least one end of the hose ( 3 ) is fixed to and/or leant against the outer cover ( 1 ) of the tent and/or the floor portion ( 2 ) of the tent.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Technical solution relates to tents with inflatable structure, inparticular tents of technical textiles such as work, rescue, military,humanitarian and other special-purpose tents.

BACKGROUND ART

Tents normally contain supporting structure, beams, made of rigidmaterial. Because tents are mostly intended for temporary use only, insuch case their transportation, as well as the time for erecting them isproblematic. To remedy these deficiencies, there are known solutions oftent structures with inflatable tube, which are either continuously airblown, or airtight.

The problem with the continuously air blown tubes is low workingpressure (ca 1 kPa) and big diameter of the tubes thus related, as wellas the need of continuous blowing of air.

Working pressure in airtight tubes is normally 15 to 40 kPa, what helpsto significantly reduce the diameter of tubes. However, due to theirdesign the higher pressure is undesired (destructive) and therefore itis necessary to equip such beams with pressure-relief valves. It iscommon, on sunny days, that the increased pressure resulting from theincrease in air volume is compensated by pressure-relief valves.However, such released air is then missing during cooler night hours andthe tent, in particular its supporting structure, collapses.

Seamless tubes with higher working pressure without a need for thepressure compensation by pressure-relief valves seems as the mostconvenient. Solutions applying mentioned principle are already availableon the market, but employed beams are usually tailor made by specialtechnologies, what excessively raises total cost of the tent.

It would be advantageous to use, as beams, available existing elementscapable of withstanding the high working pressure. Such the elementsappear to be e.g. fire hoses, which are normally available. Use of thefire hoses as a roof construction support is disclosed in EP 0810339.This solution allows for formation of temporary roofing by means of thestructure which comprises inflatable beams, advantageously formed of thefire hoses. These hoses are at their ends connected to rigid supportingelements arranged in a row. When creating the cover for an area, rigidsupporting elements are placed along the sides of the area to becovered, whereas these elements also serve as an air supply duct for thesaid hoses. The hoses are connected with their respective ends to thesesupporting elements, which after inflating thus form an arc, a series ofarches respectively, between said supporting elements. A cover sheet isthen fixed upon the series of arches. This solution provides archedcover opened at the ends (a tunnel); however, due to the system ofsupporting elements it is not suitable for tent structures.

The objective of this technical solution is a tent with inflatablestructure exploiting advantages of the use of standard fire hoses orother industrial seamless hoses having outer textile braiding and innerairtight lining as inflatable elements of the supporting structure,while maintaining the tent structure simplicity, in particular regardingthe erecting as well as dismantling a tent.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

Said objective is achieved with a tent with inflatable structureaccording to this technical solution, which comprises an outer cover anda floor portion, characterized in that, the inflatable structurecomprises at least one beam made of standard fire hose or otherindustrial seamless hose having outer textile braiding, whereas the hoseis at each of its ends closed by a plug, of which at least one comprisesair inlet/outlet element, and at least one end of the hose is fixed toand/or leant against the outer cover of the tent and/or the floorportion of the tent.

It is possible to arrange the hoses inside the tent in all directions(longitudinal, transversal also diagonal) according to a predefineddesign of the outer cover and the floor portion. In the case of mutualcrossing of the hoses, the hoses can be divided to proportional, shortersegments and related ends of the hoses, plugs at related ends of thehoses respectively, can be connected to a joining element, or it ispossible to let the hoses cross freely.

It is advantageous if air inlet/outlet elements are placed on the bottomor side wall of the hose plug. Air inlet/outlet elements can be providedas separate air inlet element and separate air outlet element, but theseelements can also be provided in one.

The basis of the technical solution is in other words adaptation ofstandard fire hoses or other industrial seamless hoses having outertextile braiding and inner airtight lining to the form of a tent. Giventhat the tent cover and the floor portion generally form one unit, orthe hose ends are fixed to the floor portion, the hose, when inflated,takes arched shape, in particular it takes the shape according to theshape predefined by the design of the outer cover and the floor portion.

Exploitation of standard fire hoses or other industrial seamless hoseshaving outer textile braiding and inner airtight lining allows to applyhigher working pressure without a need for pressure compensation bymeans of pressure-relief valves. The shape and overall size of thesupporting structure of the tent is thus defined and remains unchangedalso during pressure fluctuations caused by changes in ambienttemperature or pressure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Technical solution is explained in greater detail in the accompanyingdrawings, where

FIG. 1—schematically shows overall front view of the inflated hose,closed at its ends by the plugs, being the beam of the tent withinflatable structure according to the technical solution;

FIG. 2—schematically shows detail of FIG. 1 of one end of the hose withthe plug;

FIG. 3—schematically shows the view of the tent with inflatablestructure according to the technical solution with the hoses being thebeams arranged in a row, tunnel tent;

FIG. 4—schematically shows the view of the tent with inflatablestructure according to the technical solution with the hoses being thebeams arranged in crossed configuration, dome tent;

FIG. 5—schematically shows detail of FIG. 4 of joining of the crossedhoses.

FIG. 6—embodiment of the hose end with the plug and air inlet/outletelement and fastening foot.

MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

FIG. 3 shows the embodiment of the tent with inflatable structure of thetunnel shape. In this embodiment, the tent comprises the outer cover 1connected with the floor portion 2, having the design corresponding totunnel shape of the tent. It is obvious that the floor portion 2 can beprovided in one piece, floor sheet, as well as divided, e.g. to strips.The tent comprises separate inflatable beams arranged in a row.Inflatable beams are composed of standard fire hose or other industrialseamless hose 3 with outer textile braiding. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,the hose 3 is closed by the plug 4 at each of its ends. Whereas, atleast one of the plugs 4 comprises air inlet/outlet element 5. Such airinlet/outlet elements are commonly known and available, e.g. variousmanually or automatically closed air valves. In the embodiment of thetent with inflatable structure according to FIG. 3, the inflated hose 3is leaning with both ends, i.e. the plugs 4 and possibly with the endportion of the hose 3 against the floor portion 2, the bottom, of thetent and the outer cover 1 adjacent to this floor portion 2. Limitingthe mutual distance of the ends of the hose 3 by the dimension of thefloor portion 2 being smaller than the length of the hose 3, the hose 3,when inflated, backs against the floor portion 2 and adjacent outercover 1, and thus creates arched inflatable beam of the tent supportingthe outer cover 1 of the tent. The outer cover 1 can additionally beattached to the hoses 3 by known means; however, even without theadditional attachment the tent such erected is sufficiently stable andrigid. Inflating the hose 3 is carried out by means of inlet/outletelements 5, which are, in this embodiment according to FIG. 2,positioned on the side of related plug 4. The hoses 3 included in theinflatable structure can also be interconnected through saidinlet/outlet elements 5 to form one pneumatic assembly for easierinflating as well as deflating the supporting structure.

FIG. 4 shows the embodiment of the tent with inflatable structure, ofdome shape, with crossed beams, hoses 3. In this embodiment, the tentcomprises the outer cover 1 connected in one piece with the floorportion 2, having the design corresponding to dome shape of the tent.Similar to previous embodiment, the floor portion 2 can be provided inone piece, floor sheet, as well as divided, e.g. to strips. The beams ofthis tent are composed of the hoses 3, wherein one end of the hoseclosed by the plug 4 leans against the floor portion 2 and adjacentouter cover 1 and the other end of the hose 3 closed by the plug 4 isconnected to the joining element 6. It is also possible to carry out theconnection such that the plugs 4 and the joining element 6 are madeintegral. The joining element 6 can take on various forms andarrangements, which mainly depend on the number of the hoses 3 to beconnected and the angle of crossing of the hoses 3. The most commonshapes are e.g. “X” and “T”. Corresponding plugs analogously to theprevious example comprise air inlet/outlet element 5.

The principle of creating of the arched beam is with inflating the hoses3 analogous to the previous example.

It is of course possible to cross the hoses 3 also without employing thejoining element 6. For example for the above mentioned particularembodiment of the dome shaped tent, the joining element 6 will not beused and the hoses 3 in such case passes one over the other withoutbeing divided.

In the above mentioned embodiments, resulting shape of the hoses 3 wasachieved with backing them against the inside of the tent defined by thecircumference of the outer cover 1 and floor portion 2. Such arrangementis the most convenient for achieving the object of this technicalsolution.

FIG. 6 shows the embodiment of the plug 4 of the hose 3 with thefastening element 7 designed for fixing it to the floor portion 2. Inthis embodiment of the technical solution that uses this type of theplug 4, it is necessary to provide anchoring elements 8 with desiredspacing on the floor portion 2, into which the fastening element 7 ofthe plug 4 is inserted. Required tension of the hose 3 is then achievedwith anchoring the plug 4 in the anchoring element 8 on the floorportion 2, and thus no direct force interaction with the floor portion 2combined with the outer cover 1 applies. In this case the connection ofthe outer cover 1 with the floor portion 2 is not strictly necessary;however, this solution lacks all preferred advantages of the solution.

Connection itself of the plug 4 to the hose is possible by means ofcommonly known embodiments of connecting a plug to the end of a hose.

Above mentioned embodiments are introduced as illustrative examples onlyfor explaining the principle of this technical solution. It is obviousthat application of principles present in this technical solutionprovides for great number of shapes and combinations of tents withinflatable structure. It is obvious that such further embodiments oftents with inflatable structure according to this technical solution arethen determined by the design and individual dimensions of the outercover 1 and the floor portion 2, the length of the hoses 3 and ways ofcrossing and combinations of these hoses 3, while all the above fallingwithin the scope of protection defined by the claims.

This technical solution considers air as inflating medium being the mostaffordable gaseous medium. However, it is clear that it is also possibleto use other suitable inert gases, such as nitrogen or CO₂.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

Tent with inflatable structure according to the technical solution canbe used wherever good storability and transportability, as well as speedof erecting an object with advantage of stability of the inflatablestructure, in particular regarding of the changing ambientcharacteristics, especially temperature and pressure, is needed.

1. Tent with inflatable structure comprising an outer cover and a floorportion, the inflatable structure further comprising at least one beammade of standard fire hose or other industrial seamless hose havingouter textile braiding, whereas wherein the hose is at each of its endsclosed by a plug, of which at least one end comprises air inlet/outletelement, and at least one end of the hose is fixed to and/or leantagainst the outer cover of the tent and/or the floor portion of thetent.
 2. Tent with inflatable structure according to claim 1, whereinthe joining element is arranged between the hoses.